


Wag 'n' Train

by Pollydoodles



Series: The Pizza Dog Chronicles [10]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6012723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollydoodles/pseuds/Pollydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy taught Bucky to high five, and he promptly taught it to the dog. </p><p>There’s little so confusing as accidentally happening on a man who was generally recognised to have been the world’s deadliest assassin; kneeling in the middle of the common room floor, dog biscuits hanging from his mouth, repeatedly lifting and replacing the front leg of an increasingly over-excited Labrador.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wag 'n' Train

Darcy taught Bucky to high five, and he promptly taught it to the dog. 

There’s little so confusing as accidentally happening on a man who was generally recognised to have been the world’s deadliest assassin; kneeling in the middle of the common room floor, dog biscuits hanging from his mouth, repeatedly lifting and replacing the front leg of an increasingly over-excited Labrador. 

The sight confused Banner, made Steve roll his eyes and caused Darcy to smile and join Bucky on the floor alongside the dog. 

Eventually, the dog picked it up and Bucky took great delight in showing any new visitor to the tower – and several times over to those who’d long-since grown tired of it – what Lucky could now do. Darcy thought probably the best reaction he’d gotten so far was Thor, who frankly was just as much bemused by the animal as the act it was performing. Apparently dogs were not generally available in Asgard. Who knew?

“Y’know,” Darcy said conversationally, casually poking at the ice in her coke with her straw before continuing. “There’s dog training classes you can do.” 

Bucky’s head shot up and Steve motioned violently at Darcy behind his friend’s head, head shaking vehemently. She cocked her head back at him, silently mouthing “what?” over Bucky’s shoulder where he couldn’t see her. Steve motioned back and, whilst Darcy couldn’t catch the words, she understood the sentiment. No way should Bucky be allowed in public with that dog. Darcy shrugged back. Steve narrowed his eyes at her in return. 

Bucky’s eyes sparkled and he perked up, gazing back at her. “Dog training?” He asked, hope colouring his words and Darcy felt her heart dissolve into a puddle in the middle of her chest as he spoke, and knew that nothing that Steve could come out with would be able to dissuade her from indulging Bucky. Not when he looked at her with such trust in his gaze. 

Steve sighed audibly, more than capable of reading both of them. “This is a terrible idea.” He warned, leaning around Bucky and stealing a piece of toast from Darcy’s plate. She half-heartedly stabbed her fork in the direction of his hand, but he was too quick and she didn’t really care. 

“It can’t possibly be worse than anything Stark’s done, Steve.” Darcy said, taking a slice of toast and pushing the plate over to Bucky with the remaining piece. Bucky graced her with a brilliant smile before wolfing down the toast in two bites. If she’d not seen him do it hundreds of times before, she’d have been impressed. “Anyway, it’s just dog training. How much trouble could it be?”

*****

“Which of you is the dog’s trainer?”

The officious looking bald man stared expectantly between Darcy and Bucky, clipboard in hand and pen poised. Lucky was sandwiched between the pair of them, head bobbing from side to side as he tried to keep an eye on all the other dogs also in the room. 

“Excuse me?” Darcy asked, mesmorised by how much the man looked like he should be working at the local library and not in charge of something fun like dogs. 

The man sighed and the clipboard dropped a little before he answered. “There can only be one recognised handler for the dog. Otherwise the dog is confused, and cannot perform as expected.”

“Um-“ Darcy threw a glance at Bucky, who tightened his grip on Lucky’s lead. She had a feeling that Steve would not approve of what she was about to say. She sighed. “Okay, it’s him.”

“Take a seat, miss.”

Darcy reluctantly retreated to the corner of the room and sank into a plastic chair, eyes fixed firmly on Bucky and the yellow Labrador straining at his lead. She resisted the urge to bite at her lower lip and instead sat on her hands as she watched on. It would be alright. It would definitely be alright. It wasn’t as though he’d never been in a public place before. With sole responsibility for looking after Lucky. With someone he didn’t know barking orders at him. 

Oh god, what have I done?

“Control is the most important aspect of dog handling.” The trainer intoned from the middle of the room. “One must always retain full control over the dog.” Bucky narrowed his eyes and regarded the trainer with full concentration. Lucky barked and pawed at his leg. 

“Control,” the trainer continued, shooting Bucky a dark look from the corner of his eye before continuing. “Means that both your dog and indeed yourself are able to behave in the appropriate fashion as expected in public places.” Darcy had a strong urge to put her head in her hands. 

“Is that one yours?”

Darcy jerked her head to the side at the voice. Sat next to her was a middle-aged woman in a large baggy knitted sweater, curled brown hair set neatly about her face. Curious brown eyes looked over Darcy, who was visibly sweating, and then over to Bucky who was attempting to push Lucky’s ass to the floor. Every time it brushed the floor, Bucky would release and then Lucky would bounce right back up again, tail wagging hard. 

“Um, yeah.” Darcy said in a small voice, trying to retain some sliver of hope that it would all be okay. 

“Well, he’s just beautiful.” The other woman said favourably. 

“Yeah, uh, yeah,” Darcy answered remotely, only half-concentrating on the conversation. “He’s a great looking dog.”

“Oh honey no,” Her new best friend laughed, and tapped Darcy’s arm lightly. “I meant your boyfriend. What a tall drink of water he is.” She looked over Bucky approvingly, who had abandoned trying to get Lucky to sit the way the trainer had been instructing them to go about it, and simply scooped the dog up into his not-inconsiderable arm span and dropped cross-legged to the floor himself. 

Darcy didn’t miss the trainer’s jaw dropping open at Bucky’s flexible interpretation of the sit command, although perhaps thankfully Bucky did. Then her brain kicked in and replayed what the woman had just said to her. 

“Oh- Oh no, he’s not- I mean, we’re not,” She stammered, her eyes sliding off Bucky and over to the woman next to her who was blinking owlishly at Darcy behind milk-bottle thick glasses. “He’s not my boyfriend.” She tried not to think too much on the twisting feeling that settled low in her stomach as she spoke. 

“Oh.” The woman replied. “Well, I just assumed … I mean, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you when you arrived here.” Darcy stared at her, eyes wide. The other woman laughed and hit her gently again on the forearm. Darcy kind of wished she’d quit that. It didn’t hurt, but it was an overfamiliar gesture and she wasn’t entirely sure she really liked this woman or not. 

Maybe Bucky was rubbing off on her more than she thought. 

“Mmmmmm.” Darcy made a non-committal noise in return, and resumed her watch over Bucky and the dog. The trainer had abandoned the sit command and instead was getting the class to walk their dogs to heel. The rest of the class was managing the command, more or less. Bucky was trying to walk with Lucky’s lead looped around his legs and the dog somehow managing to walk backwards. Darcy wasn’t aware dogs could even do that. 

The trainer rubbed his fingers briefly against his temples, and seemed to be wrestling with himself as to whether to speak to Bucky or not, but ultimately opted against it. Lucky barked excitedly as he got close to the dog in front, a reserved Spaniel which didn’t seem to appreciate an enthusiastic sniffing of its rear end from Lucky. The Spaniel snapped its head around and its teeth closed together sharply just millimetres from Lucky’s nose. 

Darcy had never seen a dog with a look of surprise on its face before, but there was a first time for everything and Lucky sure did look surprised. The man who was walking the Spaniel snapped himself and turned on his heel, bringing the dog to a jerky halt and raising a finger to jab into Bucky’s chest. 

Darcy was out of her chair before the man’s finger could fully make contact, and at Bucky’s side before the finger had time to draw back again. Steve would have been proud and Jane would have been frankly amazed at her speed, having never knowingly witnessed Darcy move faster than was absolutely necessary. 

“Buck,” She said quietly, laying a small hand against his bicep. She looked up at him and willed him to look back at her rather than at the blustering man in front of him, who was definitely of the keyboard-warrior mould. What he thought he was doing, picking a fight with Bucky who was at least a foot taller and probably 50lbs heavier in muscle mass, she didn’t know, but then again perhaps people weren’t expecting someone like Bucky at a dog training class. 

A moment passed, pregnant with possibilities, not all of them positive. 

Finally, after what seemed like an absolute age, Bucky fixed his gaze to her own and she let out an imperceptible sigh. He smiled at her. A slow, easy smile that crept across his face and lit up his features like Christmas, a smile that wasn’t always easy to coax out of him but that was all the bigger reward for that. Darcy felt her insides start to relax from the coil that had tightened badly upon seeing the situation unfold from her uncomfortable plastic chair. 

Lucky barked wildly and tried to jump up at her, but with his leash still wrapped around Bucky’s muscular legs he could only manage a strangled half jerk upwards. The movement however was enough to bring Bucky off balance and he crashed to the floor gracelessly, taking Darcy with him. 

She landed against his chest, even in his unexpected fall he had thought to bring her firmly against him rather than allow her to hit the parquet flooring. Darcy thought briefly that she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was softer or not – Bucky wasn’t as large as Steve physically, but what there was of him was all muscle which wasn’t the softest thing to fall against. Still, she could hardly complain. 

Lucky’s wet nose nudged against her leg as he was brought down as well, and Bucky let go of the leash and rolled to one side, still clutching Darcy to his body carefully, letting the leash whip around his legs and free so that the dog could move properly. Lucky, now able to move as much as he liked, took the opportunity to lap the room three times and return to them, barking madly as he went. 

Bucky had rolled again onto his back and Darcy was pressed flush against him, her legs falling either side of his. Lucky shoved his face between theirs and licked enthusiastically, slobbering his wet tongue across first Bucky’s cheek and then Darcy’s. She giggled and, after a brief moment, so did he. His arms were still looped around her and they felt both warm and cool, his metal arm brushing lightly against bare skin as her shirt rode up and exposed the small of her back. 

Lucky took off again, and this time two of the other dogs broke free from their owners and joined him on two more loops of the room. This was accompanied by shouting from the other people and, from the corner of her eye, Darcy could see her new best friend rising awkwardly from her plastic chair to join in. The trainer’s face was rapidly turning purple. 

“Bucky…” She breathed next to his ear. “I think we need to evac quickly, pal.”

His serious blue eyes looked back at her, then turned away and swept the room quickly. Returning to her face, he nodded and sat up, embracing her to him closely as he did so, fingers braced against her lower back. Pushing a hand back through voluminous curls and pulling it away from her face, Darcy flushed slightly realising she was now settled in Bucky’s lap. Had it not been for the ensuing chaos ramping up around them, she would have had more time to really give into that feeling, but as it was she had to refocus away from the body tucked tightly against hers and onto the devastation that their dog was systematically wreaking. 

Lucky looped past them again, several other dogs now in his wake – and some owners – and Darcy reached out a hand automatically, somehow managing to grab hold of his trailing lead. She was dragged slightly to the left, Lucky’s bulk and velocity pulling her from Bucky’s lap. A firm grip on her thigh stopped her from being pulled any further, and Lucky was brought up short. 

The dog turned on a dime and returned to Darcy and Bucky, throwing himself into their intertwined bodies with vigour and a good deal of licking. Darcy was forced back onto Bucky and threw an arm up across her face against the onslaught. Somehow she managed to keep a firm grip on the leash and wind it around her forearm. 

Bucky put an arm out and pushed Lucky down to the floor, until the dog was lying flat against the parquet. Darcy took the opportunity to pop up to her feet and braced herself, stance wide, hoping it would be enough to stop Lucky should he try to run again. She was joined presently by Bucky, who stood protectively behind her. 

 

 

“You.” The trainer raised a shaking finger and pointed at them. 

Darcy was hanging on desperately to Lucky’s lead as he strained at the other end of it, barking furiously at the little bald man and nearly pulling her over with his weight thrown forward. Bucky now had his metal arm around her waist, preventing her from toppling over and in the other hand he held a squeak toy that he’d produced from god knows where, and that he was squeezing repeatedly, trying and failing to distract Lucky. 

Unfortunately Lucky was about the only dog in the room that wasn’t paying it any attention, and a particularly ambitious Chihuahua was, at that moment, attempting to scramble up Bucky’s leg, its owner hollering at it without any sign of recognition from the determined little beast. 

“You are never coming back here. Never.”

*****  
“So how was it?”

“Shut it, Steve.”


End file.
